What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

'"Old and Fabulous Records of Classical Music" by Haruki Murakami will be published soon in this month.  This is a collection of essays on 486 classical music records he likes. Hope an English edition will be published soon.  Jfyi and I haven't read it yet.

https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/05/19/1111

[SimonNZ]

That's Japanese only? You're killing me.

I've been waiting years for his jazz writings to be translated.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I've been waiting years for his jazz writings to be translated.

Sorry, that's a good indication that this book may not be translated either.
Publishers think, or know, that unlike his novels, his essays about old music won't sell.
Hope I am wrong and you will read them in English, though.

[Iota]

Even if this was the only book Dickens had ever wrote, I'd still consider him one of the great writers in the English language, it just spills over with so many virtues. And so witty at times too (as he so often is).
There are still some glaring gaps in the list of his novels I've read, which I really must plug before my own final exit down the plughole.

[Jo498]

I will check out writings of Pascal and Unamuno. Specially, Unamuno looks interesting.
As you already know, Kant and S explained that what appears to be the world are not real, but our limited and biased perception. Colors are not real. Lights with different wave lengths stimulate eyes, and eyes send electrochemical signals to the brain, which creates the perception of colors. So colors are not there in the real world, but they are a creation by our brain. Same about the sound, odor, taste, etc. Air waves and odor particles stimulate ears and noses, they send signals to the brain, and the brain creates the perception of sound and odor. So there is no sound or smell in the real, physical world.
Kant proceeds that the 3 dimensionality of the world and unidimensional time are perceptions created by our neurological activities as well.

This is not Kant, but a vaguely kantian late 20th/21st century "scientistic"  reinterpretation of Kant.
It is *not* our physiological activities that create perceptions. All this biological stuff is part of the picture that is conjectured by science. But Kant wants to get at a far deeper level. Both the theoretical concepts of science as well as the perceptional structure of any being "like us", i.e. a being that has senses AND understanding (so angels could "perceive" differently and God most certainly does it differently via intellectual intuition that is not discursive and split into senses and understanding) are already dependent on the forms of intuition (Anschauungsformen) space and time as well as on some other structures (categories of understanding, incl. logic, causality). This is not neurological or physiological, that would be a re-interpretation. One can do this but I think this mostly misses the point of Kant and uses empirical science to provide something that according to Kant could never be provided empirically, because it is the a priori precondition of empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge cannot be its own foundation (or maybe it can, but this would be profoundly Anti-Kantian )
If it was neurological it would not be a priori and analysable by pure reason. It would also be in a sense question begging because neurology presupposes the more basic sciences like physics and these fundamental sciences according to Kant presuppose the epistemic structures he tries to analyse.

Cold comfort: Kant himself is inconsistent because he presupposes some kind of primordial causality by which things in themselves "affect" (affizieren) our senses (to get the whole process of perception and knowing started). But this cannot be "real" causality because causality as used in theoretical physics etc. (recall that the inspiration for the Kantian project is to explain how mathematical natural science is possible) is a feature of understanding "impressed" on the things in themselves.

Morale: One should bite the bullet and either become a realist or a complete idealist (i.e. get rid of things in themselves that can affect despite causality only coming "later" via understanding). The Kantian way to have both is not stable and probably inconsistent.

[Artem]

'"Old and Fabulous Records of Classical Music" by Haruki Murakami will be published soon in this month.  This is a collection of essays on 486 classical music records he likes. Hope an English edition will be published soon.  Jfyi and I haven't read it yet.

https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/05/19/1111

That looks extremely interesting. Did anybody like his book with Ozawa? I'm yet to pick it up.

[Artem]

Nice cover. I will look for a copy.

There's also a NYRB version of that novel with a different title, which I assume is a more direct translation.

[SimonNZ]

That looks extremely interesting. Did anybody like his book with Ozawa? I'm yet to pick it up.

Yes - that was actually excellent. Murakami is clearly a close and careful listener, who was able to speak with Ozawa at Ozawa's level, which was a surprise as the way he talks about classical music or jazz in his novels is much lighter.

[SimonNZ]

There's also a NYRB version of that novel with a different title, which I assume is a more direct translation.

I see he's also done this, which has piqued my curiosity:

[aligreto]

Orwell: Burmese Days





It is a long time since I have read Orwell's books. Many, many years later I am going to re-read them. This is his second novel after Down and Out in Paris and London which I re-read lately and both books were published approximately only one year apart. However, from the very first paragraph, Burmese Days is a completely different writing style to Down and Out in Paris and London. It is far more descriptive and detailed of both characters and events. I know that the books are entirely different from the point of view of approach but not so much so that the writing style should also be so very much different from one another. There were also some very interesting characters in Down and Out in Paris and London which could easily have been developed. These are just my very initial thoughts.

Burmese Days is the story of the occupying English ruling class in a small outpost in Burma at that time. It is one man's struggle against the attitudes, arrogance and prejudice of the English and their treatment of the natives. These sentiments manifest themselves in the conversations among the various members of "The Club" where only white English planters are allowed to congregate each evening to be served by the "locals". This is interesting from an English perspective as we do not often get such truths on the social injustice of "The English Empire" and indeed how "Empire" should maintained very often from a dissenting English perspective.

There is also an interesting side story about the corruption of a local Burmese official and both of these parallel stories intersect. It can be an uncomfortable read but it is always a compelling one.

[SimonNZ]

You think of Down And Out as being a novel rather than memoir?

It is a work that's hard to fix in an exact genre.

[Mandryka]

Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London





This was a very rapid read in comparison to my last read [Dickens: Our Mutual Friend - see Pickwick Club]. My initial reaction to this book is that I am very thankful that I was never that poor so that I experienced the hunger and deprivation that is illustrated in this work. The juxtaposition of this work and the mention of Dickens strikes me as opportune because Orwell was describing the plight of the poor worker in the context of working in some well to do hotels and the gruelling life of servitude that these unfortunate people had to endure in order to serve the well to do their daily meals. The dichotomy of the two modes of life is well contrasted by Orwell even though he primarily focuses on the lower end of the social scale. I am also very glad that I was not dining in those exclusive Parisian hotels that Orwell describes from a cleanliness and hygiene point of view.

The other interesting side of his account is the people and characters that he met and knew and their outlook on Life. Orwell's social commentary and philosophy are also both interesting.

Zero hours contract.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Orwell: Burmese Days





It is a long time since I have read Orwell's books. Many, many years later I am going to re-read them. This is his second novel after Down and Out in Paris and London which I re-read lately and both books were published approximately only one year apart. However, from the very first paragraph, Burmese Days is a completely different writing style to Down and Out in Paris and London. It is far more descriptive and detailed of both characters and events. I know that the books are entirely different from the point of view of approach but not so much so that the writing style should also be so very much different from one another. There were also some very interesting characters in Down and Out in Paris and London which could easily have been developed. These are just my very initial thoughts.

Burmese Days is the story of the occupying English ruling class in a small outpost in Burma at that time. It is one man's struggle against the attitudes, arrogance and prejudice of the English and their treatment of the natives. These sentiments manifest themselves in the conversations among the various members of "The Club" where only white English planters are allowed to congregate each evening to be served by the "locals". This is interesting from an English perspective as we do not often get such truths on the social injustice of "The English Empire" and indeed how "Empire" should maintained very often from a dissenting English perspective.

There is also an interesting side story about the corruption of a local Burmese official and both of these parallel stories intersect. It can be an uncomfortable read but it is always a compelling one.

Sounds like I must get a copy. 

[aligreto]

You think of Down And Out as being a novel rather than memoir?

It is a work that's hard to fix in an exact genre.

That is a good point and well made 

[aligreto]

Zero hours contract.

Yes, it is amazing how not many things fundamentally change with "Progress".

[aligreto]

Sounds like I must get a copy. 

It is a definite recommended read.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

L'amant (The Lover), Marguerite Duras.
Innovative and delicate writing.

[vers la flamme]

Yes - that was actually excellent. Murakami is clearly a close and careful listener, who was able to speak with Ozawa at Ozawa's level, which was a surprise as the way he talks about classical music or jazz in his novels is much lighter.

When I read that book, I thought "this guy is one of us" 

'"Old and Fabulous Records of Classical Music" by Haruki Murakami will be published soon in this month.  This is a collection of essays on 486 classical music records he likes. Hope an English edition will be published soon.  Jfyi and I haven't read it yet.

https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/05/19/1111

This looks amazing. Also hoping for an English translation.

[ritter]

L'amant (The Lover), Marguerite Duras.
Innovative and delicate writing.

A beautiful book, and one that deservedly catapulted Duras (who already had a very distinguished career behind her at the time) into literary mega-stardom.

A couple of years after L'amant was published, I wrote her a letter expressing my admiration for her work, and she was kind enough to answer (saying that she usually wouldn't reply to readers' letters, but that mine had "touched her for its sincerity and naturalness"  ). Her framed letter hangs on my walls....

[Artem]

That's kind of amazing, ritter!